Method of making embossed pile fabrics



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' ArmeA/t'ysr Jan. 25, 1955 w. A. RICE METHOD OF MAKING EMBOSSED PILE FABRICS 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 Filed July 22, 1954 United States Patent METHOD OF MAKING EMBOSSED PILE FABRICS Walter A. Rice, Amsterdam, N. Y., assignor to Mohawk Carpet Mills, Inc., Amsterdam, N. Y., a corporation of New York Application July 22, 1954, Serial No. 444,984

4 Claims. (Cl. 28-72) This invention relates to pile fabrics, such as are employed as floor coverings, and is concerned more particularly with a novel method of producing a p1le fabric suitable for floor covering use, in which the plle has sunken or depressed areas determined by a pattern and giving the pile a carved or embossed appearance.

At the present time, carpet fabrics can be produced at lowest cost by weaving on a tapestry loom or by pass ng pile yarns through a backing fabric on a sewing machine to form pile elements. In such fabrics as commonly made up to the present, the pile is of uniform height and is of somewhat monotonous appearance. Fabrics of the type described can be given a carved or embossed appearance by clipping the pile by hand, but such hand operations are so expensive that they are not economically feasible for low cost goods. Pile fabrics with designs in the pile formed by tufts of diiferent height, tufts omitted, etc., can be readily produced on Wilton looms equipped with a Jacquard mechanism, but such looms operate at so low a speed that the cost of production is higher than that of tapestry or velvet woven fabrics or sewn tufted fabrics.

The present invention is directed to the provision of a method for the rapid and low cost production of floor covering fabrics having sunken or depressed areas in the pile in accordance with a pattern, and the method involves the use of particular fibers in the pile yarns of the fabrics and the modification of such yarns in the pile elements in the areas referred to. The fibers employed in the pile yarns in the practice of the method are of the heat-shrinkable type and the yarns contain such a proportion of these fibers that the pile elements made of the yarns can be caused to shrink and decrease in height on being exposed to a sufficiently high temperature. The modification of the yarns in the pile is carried out by the heating of the yarns to the critical temperature in localized areas in accordance with a pattern, While protecting the pile yarns outside said areas.

For a better understanding of the invention, reference may be made to the accompanying drawings, in which Fig. 1 is a view in side elevation with parts omitted of an apparatus, which may be used in the practice of the method of the invention;

Fig. 2 is a plan view on an enlarged scale of part of the apparatus shown in Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is an enlarged diagrammatic view on the line 33 of Fig. 1;

Figs. 4 and 5 are fragmentary perspective and end views, respectively, showing the operation of the embossing roller; and

Fig. 6 is a transverse view through a piece of the finished fabric produced by the method of the invention.

The starting material employed in practicing the new method is a fabric having a pile of uniform height and such a fabric may be produced on a tapestry loom or by a tufting operation on a sewing machine. In either case, the pile elements of the fabric may be tufts or loops, as desired, although the fabric will ordinarily have tufts. The method is equally applicable to the treatment of Axminster fabrics, although such fabrics have designs in the pile produced by the use of pile yarns of different colors and the pile is thus not monotonous in appearance.

The pile yarns employed in the fabric used in the method contain such a proportion of fibers, which shrink when exposed to a suificiently high temperature, that pile I 2,700,205 Patented Jan. 25, 1955 elements made of the yarns will pull down or decrease inheight, when heated to the critical temperature. There are numerous synthetic fibers, which are heat-shrinkable, and a typical one is a polyvinyl chloride fiber, which is sold commercially under the name Fibravyl and has a melting point of about 210 F. Other fibers, which are sufficiently heat-shrinkable to be useful in the practice of the method, are those made of polymerized vinylidene chloride, copolymers of vinyl chloride and vinyl acetate, polystyrene, plasticized cellulose acetate, etc.

The pile yarns in the fabric may be made wholly of the heat-shrinkable fibers, but it is preferable for reasons of economy, durability, etc., to use such fibers in conjunction with the other textile fibers, natural or synthetic, which are commonly used for pile yarns in floor coverings. The pile yarns may, accordingly, be formed by plying together a number of singles yarns spun from a blend of the heat-shrinkable fibers and common fibers or by plying together singles yarns spun from heat-shrinkable fibers and non-heat-shrinkable fibers, respectively. Better results are obtained by the use of pile yarns produced from blends of the fibers and typical blends are as follows:

1. 70% viscose rayon 30% polyvinyl chloride 2. viscose rayon 15% polyvinyl chloride 3. 42 /2% wool 42 /2% viscose rayon 15% polyvinyl chloride 4. 50%-70% polyvinylidene chloride 50%-30% polyvinyl chloride Ordinarily, the blend should include at least 15% of the heat-shrinkable fibers and the proportion of such fibers may be increased to although this is undesirable for reasons mentioned above. In any blend of fibers used, the heat-shrinkable fibers used must shrink at a temperature not detrimental to the other fibers in the blend.

The fabric F shown in the drawings is of the sewn tufted type and it includes a backing 10, which is an ordinary fabric woven of yarns of cotton, jute, etc., and a pile 11 formed of lengths of pile yarn inserted through the backing to form loops, which are subsequently cut to produce tufts 12. The pile yarns are heat-shrinkable, as above described.

In practicing the method, the fabric F is drawn from a supply roll 13 and is passed through an embossing assembly, which consists of an embossing roll 14 with projections 14a and smooth secondary rollers 15 and 16. In passing through the assembly, the projections 14a on the roll 14 enter the pile of the fabric and depress portions thereof in areas 17, which are determined by the shape and arrangement of the projections 14a, that is, in accordance with the pattern. From the roll 16, the fabric passes over a supporting roll 18 and may then be subjected to conventional finishing operations or it may be rolled up and carried elsewhere for finishing. The finishlng operations employed involve steaming the pile by directing jets of steam thereon and then passing the fabric through a dryer.

The embossing roll 14 is hollow and it is provided with hollow trunnions 19 mounted in suitable bearings 20. Steam is supplied to one of the trunnions through a line 21 connected to the trunnion through a gland 22 and the other trunnion is connected through a similar gland 23 to an exhaust steam line 24. The steam supplied is at such a pressure as to maintain roll 14 at the temperature necessary to effect shrinkage of the pile yarns. The embossing roll 14 is provided with a pulley or sprocket wheel 25, by which it can be driven by a belt or chain and rolls 15 and 16 are similarly driven, as are also such other rolls of the apparatus as may be desired.

In the passage of the fabric through the embossing assembly, the projections 14a on the embossing roller depress the pile elements, with which they come in contact, and raise the temperature of the compacted elements so that these elements shrink., The depressed areas of the pile are not subjected to any substantial pressure and, to insure this'result, the surface of roll 14 between the projections 14a is so spaced from the secondary rolls 15, 16 and the height of projections 14a is such that the outer faces of the projections are spaced from the secondary rolls by a distance a, which is substantially greater than the thickness of the backing 10 of the fabric. Also, the distance between the surface of roll 14 between projections 14a and the surfaces of the secondary rolls 15, 16 is greater than the thickness b of the fabric and the height of the projections 14a is less than the thickness of the fabric. As a result, the top surface of the pile 11 of the fabric is spaced from the surface of the heated roll 14 between projections 14a by a distance and the elements in the pile between the areas engaged and depressed by the projections 14-11 are not raised to a temperature, at which the yarns shrink. Preferably, the fabric is passed through the embossing assembly at such a rate and the embossing roll 14 is maintained at such a temperature that the heat-shrinkable fibers in the depressed areas 17 of the pile soften and adhere to one another and to the common fibers in the pile yarns. This adhesive action assists in keeping the depressed areas of the pile in that condition.

As the fabric leaves the embossing rolls, the pile elements 11a at thesides of the areas, which have been depressed by the projections 14a on the embossing rolls, are somewhat erect, so that the depressed areas of the pile have a width approximating that of the projections 14a. As a result of the steaming operation, the elements 11a tend to bend over the areas, so as to reduce the width of the latter and give a bevelled effect along the edges of the depressions at the surface of the pile, as indicated at 1112. In the finished fabric, the pile elements 17 in the depressed areas have no tendency to rise, since the shrinking has effected a permanent change of condition. As the elements in the pile outside the areas determined by the pattern have not been heated to the critical temperature of the heat-shrinkable fibers therein, the pile of the finished fabric has its original height and appearance except for the depressed areas, which produce the carved or embossed effects.

The apparatus illustrated forthe practice of the method includes. an embossing roll, which is heated by steam and has embossing projections. As an alternative, the roll may carry electric resistance heating elements, preferably of the enclosed type, which are insulated from the roll and arranged in accordance with the pattern. These elements may be disposed in cavities in the roll, 50- as to lie flush with the surface of the roll or project beyond that surface to a greater or less extent. In order that the roll itself may not be heated to a temperature, which will detrimentally affect the portions of the pile between the areas to be depressed, even though such portions of the pile engage the roll, the roll may be hollow and kept cool by passage of a coolant therethrough.

I claim:

1. A method of producing a pile fabric having depressed areas providing pattern etfects, which comprises forming a fabric having a pile made of heat-shrinkable yarns, and depressing the pile of the fabric in areas determined by a pattern and simultaneously heating the yarns in the depressed portions of the pile to a temperature causing the yarns to shrink.

2. A method of producing a pile fabric having depressed areas providing pattern eifects, which comprises forming a fabric having a pile made of yarns containing at least about 15% by weight of heat-shrinkable fibers, and depressing the pile of the fabric in areas determined by a pattern and simultaneously heating the yarns in the depressed portions of the pile to a temperature causing the yarns to shrink.

3. A method of producing a pile fabric having depressed areas providing pattern effects, which comprises forming a fabric having a pile made of yarns spun from a blend of at least about 15% by weight of fibers having the characteristic of shrinking upon exposure to an elevated temperature and the remainder of non-heat-shrinkable fibers capable of withstanding said temperature without damage, and depressing the pile of the fabric in areas determined by a pattern and simultaneously heating the yarns in the depressed portions of the pile to a temperature causing the yarns to shrink.

4. A method of producing a pile fabric having depressed areas providing pattern eifects, which comprises forming a fabric having a pile made of heat-shrinkable yarns spun from a blend of fibers containing at least about 15 by weight of heat-shrinkable polyvinyl chloride fibers and the remainder non-heat-shrinkable fibers capable of withstanding without damage the temperature, at which the polyvinyl chloride fibers shrink, and depressing the pile of the fabric in areas determined by a pattern and simultaneously heating the yarns in the depressed portions of the pile to a temperature causing the yarns to shrink.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Charch et al. Jan. 28, 1947 Castellan July 19, 1949 OTHER REFERENCES 

